School Reforms Said To Cut Time for Vocational Training

In a recent nationwide survey of 181 secondary and postsecondary
vocational educators, more than 60 percent said their students have a
"decreasing" amount of time to take vocational courses.

Of the 91 high-school vocational-education teachers surveyed in the
American Vocational Association poll, nearly 80 percent said time for
vocational education had decreased for their students, with some
respondents attributing the lack of time to "increased academic
requirements."

In addition, more than two-thirds of the secondary vocational
educators queried reported declining enrollments in their classes over
the last three years, with 11 percent reporting a "severe" decrease and
59 percent reporting a "slight" decrease.

Echoes National Report

The survey bears out the arguments of a report on vocational
education released last November by the National Commission on
Secon-dary Vocational Education. (See Ed-ucation Week, Nov. 28,
1984.)

In the report, titled "The Unfinished Agenda: The Role of Vocational
Education in the High School," the commission contended that the reform
movement, with its emphasis on increased study of traditional academic
subjects by all students, fails to consider "differences in student
interest and ability," as well as "the needs of those high-school
students who do not plan to go to college and who purposefully choose a
vocational program."

More Federal Funds

The ava has used the results of the January survey to argue for
increased federal funds for vocational education in recent
Congressional appropriations hearings, according to James Day, director
of the Council of Vocational Educators, which conducted the survey for
the ava

Although academic reform advocates have shifted education's emphasis
away from vocational training, Mr. Day noted that recent federal
legislation calls for development of vocational-education programs.

The federal budget allocated $742.1 million for vocational education
in the fiscal year 1985, which ends Sept. 30. The ava is asking the
Congress for an additional $100-million appropriation for the current
fiscal year, Mr. Day said. For its fiscal 1986 request, the association
is using "as a benchmark" the $950-million figure authorized by the
Congress for fiscal 1985 vocational-education funding with passage of
the Carl D. Perkins Act last fall. (See Education Week, Oct. 31,
l984.)

The Perkins Act requires, among other things, that states establish
state boards of vocational education to administer programs called for
by the legislation.

Nearly 70 percent of the vocational educators responding to the ava
survey said funding limitations prevented them from "developing or
expanding" programs that would "meet employment opportunities" offered
to students in their region. They cited "high-technology" and trade and
industrial programs among those most in need of development, Mr. Day
said.

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